A petition was signed by 575 settlers at Red River Metis
Colony against the Hudson Bay Company, claiming they were ruling with a
hard and heavy hand. They also claimed they had paid large sums of money
for land and yet cannot obtain deeds for the land. The Hudson Bay Company
would only issue deeds if the settlers signed papers making themselves virtual
slaves to the Company. The Hudson Bay Company used armed constables to break
into our homes and steal any furs found. One settler had his home burned
to the ground, and he was sent as a prisoner to York Factory. These Hudson
Bay men are strangers to ourselves and to our country. We are forced to
pay 100 to 400% tax on Hudson Bay goods. These foreigners appoint governors
and chief traders, set prices and taxes, make laws, and set punishment.
Allen, at this time, provided proof that the Hudson Bay Company did not
have charter rights to Canada.

Mid - century is an Indian renaissance by the Europeans
and Eastern Canadians. It is my guess that 70-80% of writings about these
noble people is recorded about this time.

Some folks finally realized that if they didn't capture
some of this culture, it would be lost forever. It is noteworthy that French
contact is 250 years old, and research during this period is already culturally
contaminated. It is also important to remember, especially among the Ojibwa,
that French and Ojibwa mixed blood is extremely common. The Metis and Ojibwa,
culturally are often very difficult to differentiate.

Canoe of Indians: This painting is called a canoe of Indians
near Grand Portage. Some of the models are called Ojibwa in other paintings,
so it is safe to assume these are also Ojibwa.

Ojibwa Camp: This painting is called an Ojibwa Camp near
Grand Portage. It is also common practice for the Metis to live among their
relatives, the Ojibwa. Note the log cabin in the back ground. Mobile Metis
also used the tipi as a home.

Ojibwa Women: This painting is called Ojibwa Women, also
near Grand Portage. Notice that the woman on the left is the same woman
in the front of the canoe. This painting leaves nothing to the imagination
as to why the French married the Ojibwa Women.

The Canadian House of Commons received this scathing indictment
concerning the British Hudson Bay Company: The Management of their affairs
is inscrutable; it is like a commercial tomb, closed with the key of death
to all except a favored few; its councils unfathomable and its secrets unknown;
its revenuers are acquired in secret and distributed in silence. It is noteworthy
that most of present day Canada is being governed by this foreign Company.

James McKey (1828-1879), a Metis, married most likely Fort
Ellice to Margaret (Marguerite) Rowland daughter of the late Chief Factor
John Rowland Sr. of Fort Edmonton.

However, this year he provided as a guide service and as
an interpreter to John Palliser from Fort Ellice to Fort Carlton, and returned
with him that fall. He could have married at Fort Carlton. Others suggest
he married on June 17, 1859 Red River. It's also possible he took her as
a country wife and later church as they called it. The Rowlans were considered
to be the wealthiest family in the Hudson Bay service. McKey, through marriage,
became one of the rich of Red River.

Land-hungry white settlers began again to crowd close to
the Dakota reservation boundaries in Minnesota.

The winter of 1856-57 is unusually severe, causing hunger
in the Sioux City region (Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota). The army, under
orders, began harassing the Dakota Sioux on the Little Sioux River and prevented
the Dakota Sioux from moving south to their traditional wintering sites.
The army drove the Dakota Sioux into South Dakota. On March 8 the Dakota
Sioux attacked and killed a number of settlers at Spirit Lake, South Dakota.
Other accounts suggest it was Inkpaduta (Scarlet Point), an outlawed Wahpekute
Chief who murdered thirty persons at Lake Okoboji, Iowa and several persons
in Jackson County, Minnesota. The Indian office in Washington notified the
Minnesota Dakota Sioux that no annuities will be paid until Inkpaduta is
apprehended.

The Company of Royal Canadian Rifles is called in to assist
in maintaining law and order in the Assiniboia District. They would remain
in Red River until 1861.

Rumors are circulating at Red River that the Committee
of the British House of Commons is considering challenging the Hudson Bay
Company's monopoly position. TheHudson Bay Company,
when providing testimony before the select committee in London, England,
lied to the House of Commons when they declared:Indians
are never restrained.

No distinction is made between Indian and Metis.

They (the Company) exercise no authority over Indians,
except if a crime is committed against whites.

The Hudson Bay Company does not possess any rights over
the people of Rupert's Land.

Native people can free trade and half-breeds can freely
trade among themselves.

This need to lie indicates the changing beliefs and values,
and that those in authority knew they are in violation of basic human rights.
Father Grandin is promoted to theEpiscopate with the
title of Coadjutor to the Prelate of Red River.

1857 A METIS SETTLEMENT AT PEMBINA

A sketch of Pembina on the Red River by John Fleming. In
the early days the whole region of the Red River was called the RedRiver of the North. If more accurate reference was required,
it was usually said that it was on or near Red River and PembinaRiver, or Assiniboine River and/or by fort or trading post
names.

Mr. Cochran moved to Portage La Prairie to establish St.
Mary's Anglican Church which catered to his civilized settlers andsome Plain and Swampy Cree Indians. David Thompson died February
16, 1857 without a penny to his name, unable toprovide
sustenance for himself or his thirteen children during the last years of
his life.

The Oblate and Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) of Montreal
entered into a permanent association.

Some of the leaders of the Metis Settlement at Lac Ste
Anne included Abraham Salois, Louis Paul, Alex Nault, George Ward, one of
the Hamlins, a Loyer, Joe Gray andGabtiel Dumont;
the elder. Rather than being settlement leaders in the traditional European
sense, these are likely the leaders of the buffalo hunt. They had cultivated
littlepatches but they produced very little. The mission
garden, however, was very productive. Cows were added this year to the missions
operation.

The Oregon constitution reads in part "no free Negro,
or Mulatto, not residing in this state at the time of the adoption of this
constitution, shall come, reside, or be within thisstate,
or hold any real estate." This law is still on the books as at 2000
A.D.

January: A Major earthquake at Fort Tejon, California showed
a displacement of 30 feet.

June 26: A Cercie (Sarcee) informed Fort Edmonton that
the Cree had broken the peace treaty by killing several Cercies.

July 11: Palliser, an Irishman, arrived Red River to hire
some men of the Country for an expedition. Dr. James Hector whose first
love was geology was an obvious choice.He acquired
two wagons and five Red River carts with horses.

September: A great fire started at Quill Lakes by La Combe,
the Roman Catholic missionary to the Crees, swept the Prairies.

September: The Blackfoot reported they had killed thirty
Cree near Fort Pitt

December 30: The Palliser expedition, with Dr. James Hector,
arrived at Fort Edmonton.

1858

The Red River Metis are running 600 red river carts per
year to St. Paul, Minnesota, causing great resentment from the Hudson Bay
Company.

Pierre C. Pambrun is on the upper Missouri, River, as is
a Virginian, a Missourian and two gold-seekers.

Since 1857, hundreds of white settlers had gathered on
the Dakota Territory borders waiting to claim land. The Dakota Sioux would
not let them enter until they completed thetreaty
later this year. With the treaty complete, Chief Strike-the-nee, camped
at Yankton, South Dakota, moved to a reservation about sixty miles north.
Chief Smutty Bear,camped nine miles west of Yankton
on the river, also moved to reservation.

Fort Abercrombie on the Red River of the north, near present
day McCauleyville, Dakota Territory, was built to watch the Yankton Dakota
Sioux. It was also to spur whitesettlement in the
Red River Valley and to guard the steamboat traffic on the Red River, as
well as the wagon trains traveling overland from Minnesota to the gold fields
ofMontana. The freight traffic between Red River,
North West Territories and St. Paul, Minnesota had reached some six thousand
carts per year. Minnesota had a population ofone hundred
and seventy two thousand people. Red River, North West Territory only had
some ten thousand people.

(I)- George Simpson (1787-1860) finally abandoned the old
supply route from Hudson Bay to Britain, for the Metis free trader route
by way of Fort Garry and St. Paul,Minnesota. The one
hundred and twenty officers and men of the Royal Canadian Rifles are still
in Red River at this time.

1858 CUMBERLAND HOUSE by John Fleming

The original Cumberland house was built in 1774 by Samuel
Hearne as the first inland House of the Hudson Bay Company. It is located
inthe south east corner of Cumberland Lake on the
route to the Saskatchewan and Churchill Rivers. This marked a change in
H.B.C. policy,where they expected the natives to bring
their furs to them on the Hudson Bay Trading Posts.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota established a Provisional Territorial
Government. The Dakota Democrat paper started publication this year. Iowaestablished the Frontier Guard under Henry Martin at the Little
Sioux River, north of Sioux City. This position was to ensure that theDakota Sioux did not return to their traditional Iowa wintering
territory after having been effectively driven from Iowa. Historically,
theDakota Sioux had traded to Lake Michigan and Iowa
before the Europeans invaded their territory.

James Hector, looking for a rail route through the Rocky
Mountains, is kicked unconscious by a horse: so they called it Kicking Horse
Pass, British Columbia.

January: Father Lacombe (1827-1916) joined the Metis on
a buffalo hunt, hoping to meet up with some Blackfoot.

February 8: Fort Edmonton assumed a lively appearance this
afternoon due to the arrival of the Metis hunters from the plain with 40
horse sleighs loaded with buffalo meat.

There were 18 men, and the horses were all half-broken
animals that had been brought from the mountains of Jaspar (Jasper) House
the previous summer.

February 12: Dr. Hector visited Lac Ste Anne and wrote:
There are two villages, each with 30 to 40 houses, but there is very little
ground under cultivation. Barley, potatoesand turnips
are the crops that succeed best, and wheat has never been raised. The temperature
was running -20 to -47 F.

May 11: Minnesota became a State, having been effectively
cleared off most Dakota Sioux from the territory. There still remained many
Ojibwa in the northern region and inthe two Dakota
Sioux Reservations. Joseph R. Brown successfully persuaded the Dakota Sioux
to give up nearly a million acres of their remaining reservations for thirtycents an acre. The delay of payment for two years and, after,
the deduction for the 'trader claims' little settlement, remained for the
Indians. The unjustified claims of the traderscaused
bitter feelings among the Dakota Sioux.

1859

The Hudson Bay Company retained its territorial rights
but lost its license for exclusive monopoly trade rights. The Company was
insistent that it receive compensation forany transfer
of rights or privileges. The Ontario Reform convention laid the ground work
to annex the North West for Ontario's economic interests. St. Paul, Minnesotareported that the Red River Metis spent $100,000 in St. Paul
this year. More than 500 Red River carts were used to transport trade goods
between the two Metis centers.

James McKey (1828-1879), a Metis, established a trading
post at Sheyenne River.

Georgetown is established by the Hudson Bay Company as
a transfer point for goods from Red River to St. Paul, in an attempt to
control the Metis trade route.

Sarnia Ontario witnessed the arrival of the Grand Trunk
Railway.

Dakota became a State, with its westerly boundary extending
no further than the Red River of the north.

(I)- George Simpson (1787-1860) of the Hudson Bay Company
wrote on the subject of missions: I am quite aware of the inconvenience
they (missionaries) are likely tooccasion at our Posts
and the trouble that may arise from the rivalry between the Protestant and
Roman Catholic clergy. The Company, however, feels that it is a necessary
evilto which they must submit. Father Vital Justin
Grandin arrived at Fort Rae to found the St. Michel Mission. He would become
a key player in the demise of the MetisCanadian culture
and would be responsible for driving many from the Roman Catholic Church.

This year Lawrence Garneau (1840-1921) decided to become
a fur trader like his father. So at the age of nineteen, he set out with
two companions from Bayfield, Wisconsin(Lake Superior)
for Sioux City; a city of Iowa on the Missouri River. Sioux City, Iowa has
a population of about 400 people, mostly Metis. The Lawrence Garneau partywould canoe the Lake Superior from Bayfield to Duluth. Then
they would travel the old Dakota Sioux war trail up the St. Louis River
from Duluth, Minnesota and portage tothe Mississippi.
The Garneau party would stop at Saint Cloud, Minnesota to visit brother
Simon Gurnoe, then go onward to St. Paul; a thriving Metis settlement that
serves theRed River of the North. There is no record
to verify if they reached Sioux City, Iowa. It remains un-verified as to
whether or not they are on an American Fur Companyassignment.
Being a fourth generation fur trader, it is highly probable that they were
on assignment. They, however, went into business, but some say the disagreeable
attitudeof the Sioux made business life so unpredictable
and long lives so unlikely, that they ventured northward up the Minnesota.
Others suggest they are pursued by a DakotaSioux war
party. Others speculated that, due to the incursion of the Dakota Sioux
and the relationship between the Sioux, Ojibwa and Metis, they are forced
to abandon thisproject. This conjecture, however,
doesn't fit the family tradition that places Lawrence Garneau in the Minnesota
and Dakota territories until about 1863, which would placehim in the center of the Santee, Teton and Dakota Sioux War of
Resistance. The Santee and Teton are of the Dakota Sioux Family. Lawrence
Garneau, however, claimed in the1901 census to have
arrived at Red River in 1861. In 1860, the Metis and Ojibwa (Chippewa) had
entered into a peace treaty with the Dakota Sioux, and there is no indicationthat this treaty is ever violated, except by the Chippewa
in Red River in 1863 and then the Dakota Sioux did retaliate. This tradition
went on to suggest that, speaking Frenchand Ojibwa
only, he found hospitality among the French Metis on the White Horse Plains
where he continued to live for sometime. (II)-James Brady contends that
LawrenceGarneau is a descendent of a Dakota Sioux
half-breed which, if true, would provide a higher probability of him being
sympathetic with the Dakota Sioux in their pending warof
Independence. His future actions in the Winnipeg Resistance Movement and
the Edmonton Vigilance activities suggest he is not one to shirk moral responsibility.

The journey from Sioux City, Iowa to St. Paul, Minnesota
and then the six hundred miles to Red River settlement in the North West
required a considerable amount of pluck;so travelers
reported at this time. St. Paul, Minnesota, only twenty years old, is crowded
with steamboats, passengers and goods. There are substantial stone buildings
on themain streets that would impress the frontier
folk.

James McKey (1828-1879), a Metis, provided guide service
from St. Paul to Red River for the Earl of Southesk, (I)- George Simpson
(1787-1860) and Dr. John Rae. TheEarl wrote: Up to
his waist or chest in the clinging mud or the sluggish black water of the
creek, now passing heavy packages across, now dragging reluctant animals
throughthe mire, all came alike to him, and his cheerfulness
never flagged.

The route to Red River and the North West lay along the
left bank of the Mississippi through beautiful prairie country. Some referred
to this route as the Sioux Trail. Afterpassing Crow
Wing Fort, you had to cross the Mississippi and Gull Lake Rivers and then
travel to the Crow Wing River through marshy country. After Crow Wing Hills,you have to travel sandy tracts, scattered woods, creeks and
more scattered swamp to Leaf River and on to Otter trail Lake. Then to the
Red River valley on Otter Trail toBreckenridge; the
Assiniboine River Crossing. An average journey from St. Paul to Red River
is twenty five days, but some times this could double depending oncircumstances. There was talk of annexation of Red River by
the United States. James Wicks Taylor, commissioned by the United States
Treasury, reported on the route, byway of Red River
and the Saskatchewan, to the British Columbia gold fields.

June 10: The first steamship from Georgetown, Minnesota
arrives at Fort Garry on June 10, 1859, called the Anson Northrop, and collected
a two thousand dollar prize fromthe St. Paul, Minnesota
committee. The Hudson Bay Company responded to this threat by buying the
steamship, changing its name to Pioneer and raising freight rates toprohibitive levels on any goods carried for the Metis free
traders.

November 30: Archange Gourneau, married to Rouleau, (Roulleau
or Rolleau), began to learn how to read; being taught by the good Fathers
at Sault Ste Marie.

December 28: The first issue of the Red River Nor'wester,
owned by Buckingham and Coldwell, came out on December 28, 1859. The Earl
of Southesk, impressed with theMetis he met, spoke
of them as tall, straight and well proportioned. These true riders of the
prairies, he wrote, could run after their sled dogs, fifty or sixty miles
a day forweeks on end. S .J. Dawson, on his Red River
Expedition, wrote: I never once heard an oath or an indelicate expression
made use of among the Metis. This is different fromwhat
may be too often observed among the lower order of other communities. Henry
McKenny, who was a half brother to Dr. John Schultz, arrived to start a
store in RedRiver. He would later build the first
hotel near Fort Garry called the Royal Hotel.